Children and parents ‘code’ together in Knights Landing

A “Family Code Night” was held at the Science & Technology Academy in Knights Landing this past week for both students and paernts.

Barbara Silver, technology coordinator for the Woodland Joint Unified School District, reported the experience offered a series of fun, skill-building activities and exercises.

Silver said the Tuesday evening event was meant to “ignite computer science learning for students and their families.

“K-6 kids and parent teams tackled self-paced coding puzzles,” she explained. “The room was buzzing and full of laughter and fun, plus some important learning.”

Principal Maria Martinez was on hand as well, coding right along with students and their families.

“We’re so grateful to be able to provide this program to our families,” Martinez reported. “We know the power that this has to motivate children to go into computer science careers in the future. Family Code Night has the extra added bonus of being able to share the experience with their parents!”

Gina Reed attended with her son, Enzo, a kindergartener at SciTech and said she appreciated “so much that it’s an all-school event, for all ages to do together.”

“Enzo is learning to code, building confidence and social skills at the same time,” Reed added.

Fourth grader Lucy Figueroa coded with her mom, while baby brother Charlie looked on and reported “It was super fun! I’d like to do it again.”

Silver said participants did not need to know about computer science.

“This was a great opportunity to share with my daughter and having her walk me through the coding process since this was my first time doing it. I really enjoyed it!” said Indira Lara, who sat next to her daughter Sam, a second grader, throughout the entire evening.